CD/Web hybrids: delivering multimedia to the online learner

The World Wide Web (WWW) represents an exciting and potent force for educational content delivery. There are numerous multimedia technologies that can facilitate self-directed, practice-centered learning and meet the challenges of educational delivery to the adult learner. However, delivering content via the WWW has been plagued by unreliability and inconsistency of information transfer, resulting in unacceptable delays and the inability to effectively deliver complex multimedia elements including audio, video, and animation. This article describes how a CD/Web hybrid, essentially a web site on a compact disc (CD), combines the strengths of the CD-ROM and the WWW, and facilitates the delivery of multimedia elements while preserving connectivity. Pressing a web site onto a CD-ROM can reduce the amount of time that students spend interacting with a given technology, and can increase the amount of time they spend learning.